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Life in Wartime

The Defense Department is suggesting changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation that would mandate that contractors learn the lines between acceptable and illegal behavior under the international laws of war. This according to a story on the InsideDefense.com Web site.

Under the Pentagon proposal, contractors "'shall institute and implement an effective program' aimed at preventing law-of-war violations by employees and subcontractors," the story said.

It comes as authorities continue to investigate the role that Blackwater and other private security forces have played in gun battles and other lethal incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those incidents, coupled with the fact that the military and State Department are relying more heavily than ever before on private forces, have provoked a fierce debate in Congress about whether the security companies are properly regulated.

The story says that Pentagon officials propose basic training at a military training center or on the Web: "'Some contractors,' the language states, may need what the notice calls 'advanced training' in the laws of war."